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The Homeschool How To
I don't claim to know anything about homeschooling, so I set out on a journey to ask the people who do! Join me as I chat with homeschoolers to discuss; "why are people homeschooling," "what are all the ways people are using to homeschool today," and ultimately, "should I homeschool my kids?"
The Homeschool How To
#103: Take Back Your Brain—and Your Freedom—from the School System
What leads a parent to the decision to homeschool their children? Laurie Hammer, with nearly two decades of homeschooling experience, opens up about her transformative journey from skepticism to being an enthusiastic advocate for this personalized educational path. Her story begins with the challenges her son faced in traditional schooling and the pivotal homeschool meeting that changed everything. With candor and humor, Laurie talks about overcoming societal pressures and embracing a lifestyle that allows her children to explore their true passions without the confines of conventional education.
Ever wondered how to nurture your child's unique interests and career aspirations? Listen as Laurie shares how homeschooling enabled her son to pursue musical and entrepreneurial paths, while her daughter thrived in animal sciences and other non-traditional learning experiences. We discuss the bold choice to question societal norms, like the pressure to decide on a career by 18, and the power of self-directed learning in today's unpredictable job market. This conversation shines a light on the importance of outdoor activities, family bonding, and the freedom to follow your heart, regardless of traditional expectations.
Further enriching this episode, a seasoned nutritional therapist joins us to share her insights on the deep connections between nutrition, mental health, and emotional trauma. Through personal stories, we explore the importance of emergency preparedness in homeschooling and the role of organizations like the Homeschool Legal Defense Association in ensuring a smooth educational experience. As we conclude, we extend heartfelt thanks to our listeners for their support and offer ways to keep this enlightening conversation going. Whether you're a homeschooling veteran, a curious parent, or someone seeking inspiration, this episode promises to provide thought-provoking perspectives and practical insights.
Flow State Education- Master Basic Facts in 5 Minutes a Day!
**Your child follows a custom learning path built just for them, focusing on their unique strengths and areas for improvement. Let your kids experience math in the flow state, where learning truly happens!
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What is the most important thing we can teach our kids?
HOW TO HANDLE AN EMERGENCY!
This could mean life or death in some cases!
Help a child you know navigate how to handle an emergency situation with ease:
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Welcome to this week's episode of the Homeschool How-To. I'm Cheryl and I invite you to join me on my quest to find out why are people homeschooling, how do you do it, how does it differ from region to region, and should I homeschool my kids? Stick with me as I interview homeschooling families across the country to unfold the answers to each of these questions week by week. Welcome, and with us today I have Lori Hammer from the Take Back my Brain podcast. I love that title. Thank, you.
Speaker 1:Lori, thank you so much for joining me today. Hey, thanks for having me. It's great to be here. Thank you, lori. Thank you so much for joining me today. Hey, thanks for having me. It's great to be here. Lori has been a homeschooling mom for 18 years now, so before it was trendy, before COVID ever faced this planet, well, we probably had COVID there. But, lori, what got you into homeschooling in the first place?
Speaker 2:Well, I kind of toyed with it off and on. I should say I never wanted to be a homeschooler to start with. And then I married, my husband and his family member was homeschooling and like, oh, they can do it, I could do it too, cause I didn't like. It's not like we had a bad experience in public school. It was like my son was really bored and there was a few incidences where they should have sent home a note that said, hey, we're going to go over this video in school. You're supposed to sign off on it. Well, I wouldn't get the note until like two days later and they already watched the Stranger Danger video. And then he came home with questions about somebody, said something you know, about something that happened in their in their life, and like I didn't want him exposed to those kind of things, or I should have been able to be there in the room with them because I volunteered all the time and all these kinds of things. And then I would see, um, he had his best friend live next door to us and he had Tourette's. He has some, you know, lots of different challenges there and um, I would have to go on all the field trips with him because the teachers didn't know what to do with him and so he would listen to me and behave for me, but he wouldn't if I wasn't there. And so I was kind of like, had both these boys, you know, and but there was. Just I just didn't like the way things went and I thought I can do a better job. And then they're like oh, we can put them in the talented and gifted program. And I went to see and I'm like, well, that's what we do for fun, we're not going to like, waste our time in school, you know, doing these projects that we do at home. And then I talked to my husband's cousin and they're like this is what we do. And then we had people in church that homeschooled and she's like let me take you to a homeschool meeting. Now, man, mind you, my son was seven, and so she took me to homeschooling, the high schooler meeting, and you know, looking forward, right, she goes, just come and meet these ladies, you'll love them. Her boys were great. I thought, well, I could do this. Her boys turned out, you know they.
Speaker 2:I always thought homeschoolers were weird and I was never going to homeschool and I didn't want to be that angry mom, because I heard the angry mom next door to my parents all the time who homeschooled her kids, who were a little bit odd, anyway. So I went to this meeting and we pull up and I'm looking around at all these women walking in and they've got the denim skirt on, they've got the tennis shoes and they have the white shirts and their hair's all in a bun. And here I am in my jeans and sweatshirt. And I looked at her and I said I didn't know so many Amish people. No, I said how many apostolic people? Because we have a huge apostolic group around here that all wear those same clothing. I didn't know so many apostolic people homeschooled.
Speaker 2:And she started laughing. She goes no, lori, that is the uniform. I said you've got to be kidding me. We don't have uniforms at our house, right? And she goes no, that's just the very conservative homeschoolers. That's just the way it's been, you know, since they started. And I said well, I'm just not going to fit in with this group then, because there is no way that I am wearing a denim skirt and tennis shoes Never, ever in my life. She started laughing because she was dressed the same as I am. She's like Like, I don't wear that either. So anyway, we went into this meeting and I learned things and I'm like I'm going to homeschool. So I went home and I told my husband I said we're going to homeschool. He's like what? No, we're going to homeschool. Weren't you at bingo? What the heck? What are all these ladies in denim skirts? Tell me, you're not going to wear those. Yeah, that's no reason. I can't homeschool one. So that's how we started.
Speaker 1:How did your son feel about being pulled from school? Did he have any pushback? Oh, he was so excited.
Speaker 2:He was very, very excited. So he saw what his cousins got to do and he's like I want to play, I want to climb in trees, I want to do this, I want to. You know, let's try it. Let let's try it, let's see what happens.
Speaker 1:And how many kids do you have right now?
Speaker 2:I have two my oldest. My youngest is 18.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you are at the tail end of that journey.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:We're, we're going to get there. So what was the biggest hurdle in the beginning?
Speaker 2:Oh, my gosh In the beginning was not trying to do public school at home, yeah, so the hurdles have stayed the same, even even over 18 years. Because we're the parents. I'm not a second generation homeschooler. You know my son, when he homeschools his kids, he won't have that issue Right Cause he married a homeschool girl.
Speaker 2:Um so you don't have to unlearn all that stuff, but I had to unlearn like you had to unlearn, like you're still going to unlearn. I mean I'm still unlearning things that I'm like I didn't realize. That was so ingrained in me. But yeah, definitely unschooling yourself was the biggest hurdle.
Speaker 1:How did the learning part go? Like you were probably replicating school at first. Was your son like accepting of it? Just we're doing this now at home.
Speaker 2:Okay, he's like okay, so we've got, you know, five different subjects. We've got five different books. We're going to go through each of those. Here's the schedule. Blah, blah, blah, blah. We'll go from this one, then to this one, then to this one and, you know, all of a sudden we realize, you know, math takes a little bit longer, or we really want to keep reading this book. I don't want to have to stop at 1130, you know.
Speaker 1:And so it took us a while, like let's just go with the flow on things. Yeah, and did you have the worry of the socialization Am I doing enough with? Does he have enough friends?
Speaker 2:and that sort of thing. Well, I mean, I think that's always in the back of your mind to start with. I don't care about that anymore. But yeah, I did, I did have that. So you know, we did little league stuff. I mean, we tried to do some co op stuff and we just quickly discovered, especially for my son at that point in time, we were not co-op people Like he wanted.
Speaker 2:If he was going to do something, he wants to do it and be done and not wait for, you know, the 10th kid to get done with his stuff before he moves on. You know that was just irritating to him and he would come up to me he's like mom, can we leave now? Can we leave now? We're done, we're done, I'm really done with this. So then I quickly realized that he was just, he was just very social. I mean, doing life with your kids socializes them. Doing life with 25 other little people their same age is not socialization, that's mayhem, right. And so when we, when, when we take them to church, we take, take them to the grocery store and the bank and you know all those things, yes, go do fun activities. We did field trips with other families. You know, we did all those things, um, but just doing life together I realized was a much better socialization process than you know. Mayhem of 25 kids, the same age.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's funny, I've realized too, and my son's only six, um, I, we have one group in the area that will like post. We're going on a field trip here. Does everybody want to join? And so I did the Bronx zoo earlier this year with them. But I've quickly realized I don't like group field trips. I would much rather have a group where the kids just go out in the yard and play and then I take him to the zoo or a museum, just us.
Speaker 1:And we're talking about this exhibit, that sort of yeah, 100 percent cheryl and and they're going to like a dr seuss museum in a couple of months and I'm like all his friends are going, but I'm like you're not gonna pay attention to anything. You guys are gonna be running around and they're boys too Young boys, and be screaming, running around wanting to play. And then I'm sitting here mad because we drove three hours and I paid all this money and they're not there to pay attention. So one have it be an age appropriate thing If they're not ready to like take in museums. I mean, I know I feel sort of not up to par because some of the homeschooling moms that we get together with at the play groups they're like going to museums often and maybe their kids just like museums.
Speaker 1:You know, and I love museums, but I like going without the kids because I could actually read. I know I've taken the kids and, yeah, they're not paying attention to what I'm telling them. So I'm like maybe there's also like an age appropriate level or not even age appropriate whatever's appropriate for what your child's going through at that time, like, are they able to sit and take in something about, you know, the Native American exhibit? If not, I think, yeah, just be okay with the fact that you don't need to force yourself just because it's going on in your area or with your your.
Speaker 1:It doesn't mean you have to partake in it If you know your kid it's not going to end up like you'd plan. Even there's like a farm that does all these outdoor activities and they have a homeschool day and I've done it the last two years and both times I've been like not having good experiences because you know this group is leaving out your son and they're running off and you know now he's playing with a kid that you didn't want him to play with and you know the bad influence won and I'm like this would have been much better just taking him here on our own or with one other family, and I know that like they have to learn how to be in groups too, but that can be done in the backyard. You don't have to spend money on that. Oh my gosh, right, that is so true.
Speaker 2:I mean there's so many things you can do, education wise that don't cost any money. So what are the some of the things that you've done? Oh, I mean vacations. Okay, those, those do cost money, but we just like use them as part of you know, history learning. When you go to see a battlefield, as opposed to reading about a battlefield, it's completely different, right, when you see the holes in the walls, it's different than reading about the holes in the walls you know out of a silly textbook.
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Speaker 2:A lot of hiking. We have a state park like right here in our town, so we spent hours upon hours upon hours out of that state park.
Speaker 1:What state are you?
Speaker 2:in Iowa. Yeah, so between that and the lakes just being outside bike riding, I mean you know, building things, saving all the cardboard boxes, and you know the kids would put on plays for us, you know, for like a dinner and a movie kind of thing, and they were the movie, you know, and they would make dinner and I don't know just family movie night, game night, all sorts of fun stuff. I mean you just think outside the box, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's so awesome and you're really forming those bonds and oh yeah, let's just go somewhere and do something that you know.
Speaker 2:Camping is so much fun. I mean we didn't do it a ton, but every time we went we had such a blast. But hiking, we do a lot of hiking with the kids when they were little.
Speaker 1:Now, as the kids got older and you're kind of like thinking have I prepared you for what you want to do in life? I mean, how did that settle? How did you cope with that? I mean, did you talk about college? Was that an option for you guys? Was it something that you were striving for?
Speaker 2:I mean it was different with my son and my daughter. So we'll talk about my son first. He always had different passions so we would just pursue those passions, right. So he's he's an amazing musician and so he has all the instruments. He's an amazing pianist. So we did lots of piano lessons, we did competitions, we did, you know, all those kinds of things and trying to figure out what do you want your next step to be. Let's just try something. If we don't like it, then we just won't do it again. It's not like it's a bad thing.
Speaker 2:So never pressuring them to stay into something that they didn't want to do. You know, he thought he wanted to be an electrician for a while. So I bought, you know, electrical kits for him. Well, he never did any of them. So we realized he probably doesn't want to be an electrician, but he does. He was so curious and he likes to work with his hands and he's such a good musician that he's like, what about piano tuning? And so he took a course in piano tuning and then he mentored under the local piano tuner and then at 16, he bought the local piano tuner's business and so he had a business at 16.
Speaker 2:He also was a kid who just liked adventure. So he would, you know, go to Ohio to a music camp. We had friends that moved to Idaho and we sent him on a train by himself to Idaho when he was 16. You know, not everybody would do that, but he was such a trustworthy kid and it just made sense to us at the time and I guess I didn't worry about those things. We went and checked out colleges like, what do you want to do next? And he realized this isn't the environment that I want to be in, this is not the direction that I want to go, it's not going to allow me to pursue the music opportunities that I want. Didn't want to be a concert pianist, didn't want to teach in school, you know. So those are kind of the things that didn't really fit into the box, right. And so anyway he's like, can I do a study abroad program? So we found a study abroad program where he went to Ireland and he studied at the University of Limerick and their music program. Then he traveled all over Europe and all over Ireland while he studied over there and then he came back and grew his piano business and now he's a county supervisor because he likes politics, because he ran a guy's campaign when he was in high school. So he had lots of these experiences. We did speech and debate and traveled all around with that and he also works part-time for a farmer and then he just bought his own acreage. So I mean he's just turned 26 and he's done all these things and he kind of really has a direction that he wants to go and he just pursues it because he loves to learn. He finished his four-year degree on his own time, you know, and in his own way, and it had nothing to do with music, but I know it's going to further, whatever he decides to do, you know, for the rest of his life.
Speaker 2:And then my daughter's totally different. She, um, he was a kid that would sit and study a map and memorize the lakes of the world without me telling him to do it. She looks at a map and goes that's too many words and I'm not really sure where Idaho is, kind of thing. You know. She's just totally different. She's a lot more of a free spirit, since she was young and she loves horses and so everything that we do really evolves around horses and dogs and animals. And you know, what does she want to learn? We've done different certifications. We've just done kind of like, okay, what do you want to try next? And something that she does will just land and, just you know, really resonate in her spirit and she'll go okay, this is what I want to pursue, and so then we'll go in that direction.
Speaker 2:But I never wanted to push anything on them, so I didn't care about college. I don't feel like my college degree got me really far in life. I'm sure it's helped me in, you know, lots of different ways, but I think I probably would have made it in the same spot, probably maybe even sooner, if I didn't have a college degree. You know, looking back on things, so I don't know it just kind of, I just have learned over the years, just to go with the flow on a lot of things.
Speaker 2:If you're, if your child is really excited about something, then do all you can to help them pursue that passion, and if they veer off into something else, that's okay, you know? Um, then just, you know, my son didn't want to be an electrician. So what did I? Waste $200 on electrical kits. Oh well, you know it wasn't 200,000, but you would have 200,000. Exactly, exactly. So you know, he got to go to Ireland and you know, travel and experience those kind of things and nobody, you know. It just helped him to grow as a man. And so always we're thinking you know, how can we grow, how can we build character, how can we build their self confidence?
Speaker 1:And you know, the rest of his life, because that's really what kids think and we're just kind of programmed to think that At 18, you're supposed to know what you want to go to college for and then get into a lifelong debt for this right and then come out and you're supposed to do it. And it's so silly because jobs change as especially as technology. I mean, podcasting wasn't a thing when I went to college, no, so, and you know what. I learned how to do it on YouTube and listening to podcasters.
Speaker 1:So anything that you want to learn, you can probably learn without the degree. Some jobs need the degree to get certified or whatever.
Speaker 1:But it's just, why do we expect them, even at 22, know what they're going to do for the rest of their life? I'm looking at my sister's kids now that are all in their late teens, early 20s, and yeah, it's like oh well, I want to be a cop, because, well, I've always wanted to be a cop. Well, that's weird, because your dad's a cop. Yeah, I know, it's what I always wanted to do, is it? Or are you just cause I became a government worker, because my parents were government workers?
Speaker 1:It was like well, you know so, and okay, that didn't work out. So now they don't know what they want to do. And you know my niece and my other nephew it's like oh, let's go to school for engineering. Well, do you, do you want to engineer? Do you know what that entails? Do you know what kind of jobs you can get? Do you know where the future is going with it? You know, and then we get into so much debt over it, and especially when you know boys and girls are both going, and then if you come together for a marriage and to form a family, you've got double the debt now I do have $300,000 worth of college debt Like how do you pay that?
Speaker 1:off. So I mean and is it by design, probably to you know, get everyone into this debt so that they both have to work.
Speaker 1:And then you're forced to send your kids to daycare and school, because school is the free option of you know daycare once they're of the certain age. So it really is crazy how it all snowballs, but I love that, even at 26, you don't expect him to know what he wants to do with the rest of his life, and why do we ever think we should? Like, I changed careers at 30. I've been doing this for two years, 38 years old, I started podcasting. Not that it's a career, because I don't think it really makes much money, but there's potential. I'm sure it's a business. So there's Cheryl, there's potential, yeah, but you can totally change directions. And so, yeah, why would we think a 22-year-old is going to know that? And to put them into debt over that anyway is just really crazy.
Speaker 1:So I commend you for always just letting your kids go with where the wind takes them, and seeing how that flourishes. That's such a breath of fresh air. What were? Were there any bigger obstacles with your daughter? I'm thinking back to myself with, like you know, girls in school and there's cattiness and there's this one has a phone and you know that sort of thing. Did she like miss all that because she was homeschooled, or was she still friends with people who went to school? How did that look?
Speaker 2:Yeah, For your daughter versus your son, my daughter versus my son, yeah. So I mean their friend groups look very different and how we develop those friend groups looked very different, because she's not interested in the same things that my son was interested in. So we did a couple, we did a few co-op things and that's how she met. A lot of her friends was in that co-op situation which stemmed out of volleyball. So we have a homeschool volleyball team where you know she played for quite a few years there and developed some good friendships, you know, during that time. So was there a lot of cattiness or anything in those? Really, we didn't have a whole lot of problems with the girls in our homeschool group at all. I mean, there's always going to be a little something here and there, but for the most part not really. But her best friend is she goes to public school and so you know she spends a lot of time. She goes to lots of the public school. You know games and stuff with her friend and things like that. But she tells me all the time thank you, mom, for homeschooling me, thank you that I am not there, yeah, and so I'm like, okay, shoot, you know. Yeah, I'm glad to, you know, because it doesn't always work out for everybody, but it has worked out really well for us.
Speaker 2:And, like my daughter-in-law has told me in the past, she's like you have just allowed so much freedom for your kids Not that she had a bad experience, you know, in her home at all, but she's like you just had so much, you have so much more freedom in your home and I hear that from a lot of um, my friends, kids, you know, over the years you just have so much freedom in your home to express, to talk, to try to do you know all those different kind of things. And that's really the environment we wanted to set up, because that's how you learn is you learn in freedom, always with parameters, right, freedom with parameters. And so I never gave my kids a curfew. I never needed to.
Speaker 2:You know they were always home by 10, not because I asked them to be, but because they wanted to go to bed. You know they valued sleep, because we've grown up and they've grown up in an environment that valued sleep. They've grown up in an environment that values nutrition and health and all those kinds of things. So it, while it looked really different for both of those are a lot of similarities as far as like foundational things for both my son and my daughter, but I would never send her off to Idaho on a train at 16 either. So definitely different for her as opposed to for my son. You know so do you?
Speaker 1:think I know for myself. Starting out, I looked at you know, are they going to resent me someday? Because they weren't part of the traditional high school football game or prom or that sort of stuff. Now I kind of see that's like a silly worry because you can make your own prom as a homeschooling community. You can be a date to a prom, if you know, at the school, or it just doesn't really mean anything anyways. So how did your kids take that? Did they care?
Speaker 2:My daughter, she could care less. She's like I don't want to dress up, I don't want to go to dance, she doesn't like attention, she doesn't want to date boys, she just wants to be with her horses. So that's it, my son. He went to two different proms with friends because he played piano at the Catholic school and at the public school, for like their music contests and stuff. So they would hire him to come in and play piano because he's that good, and so he met friends that way and so, you know, had this group of friends, which was amazing. And then you know he had girls that didn't have a date. And then, hey, carter, why don't you take Carter? He's a safe date, you know, kind of thing. So they would, they would, you know, take Carter to dances and proms and those kinds of things.
Speaker 2:So he had a blast. He had a blast and he would go to the games. My daughter goes to the games. You know I don't care.
Speaker 2:My son did run cross country because I was not going to have them dual enroll, because I just am not. It was just one of my things. I didn't want you to dual enroll because I didn't want to be on the school schedule, and that was our thing. We want to have freedom, we don't want to be on the school schedule. Well, he came to us, his the reasons why he should be on the cross-country team, and so he got done and my husband looked at me and I looked at him. He goes how can we tell him no after this amazing PowerPoint? Right, like, okay, fine. So he was on the cross-country team his senior year. But my daughter, she had the opportunity. If she wanted to, she could have played volleyball here, because our homeschool team wasn't super competitive and she really wanted a more competitive environment. So she didn't play this last year. But she didn't really want to be in the school schedule because it would mess up with her horse stuff, you know. So then she couldn't do all of her horse shows and those kind of things.
Speaker 1:So oh, I should outsource this. I don't really know how to teach you know this thing or that thing, or am I giving them everything they need as far as history, or I don't know. I don't even remember the subjects I took in school.
Speaker 2:We had a lady that taught my son art because he was into art for a while Eight and nine an artist, and so she was just a gracious older lady down the street. He delivered her paper. She's like you don't know how to draw, you don't know how to do this. I'm going to teach you, because she was an ex art teacher. Of course we outsource piano lessons. You know all that kind of stuff guitar lessons and things like that.
Speaker 1:Hey everyone, this is Cheryl. I want to thank you so much for checking out the podcast. I'm going to keep this short and sweet because I know your time is valuable. I want to ask you a serious question Do your kids know what to do to actually save their life in an emergency? The most important thing we can talk to our kids about is knowing their first and last name, knowing mom and dad's first and last name, mom's phone number, dad's phone number, their address, what to do if they get lost, what to do if someone who's watching them has a heart attack, a stroke, an accident where they fall and your child needs to get help.
Speaker 1:We live in a world where there's no landline phones anymore, basically, and cell phones lock. Does your child know how to call 911 from a locked cell phone? It is absolutely possible, and my book demonstrates how to do that, whether it's an Android, whether it's an iPhone and, most importantly, it starts the conversation, because I was going through homeschooling curriculum with my kids, realizing that, gee, maybe they skim over this stuff, but they don't get into depth, so my child's not going to remember this should an accident occur, right? I asked a couple of teachers what they do in school and they said they really don't do anything either other than talk about what to do in a fire during the month of October fire prevention month. So I wrote a book because this is near and dear to my heart.
Speaker 1:I have had multiple friends that have lost kids in tragedies and I don't want to see it happen again if it doesn't have to. We were at the fair over the summer and the first thing I said to my son when we walked through that gate was what's my first and last name, what is your first and last name and what is my phone number? And if you get lost, what are you going to do? You can get my book on Amazon and I will put the link in my show's description Again. It's called let's Talk Emergencies and I really hope you'll check it out because there's just no need to be scared when you can choose prepared.
Speaker 2:Did speech and debate. So we joined a co-op for that for my son so he could travel and do speech and debate. So that was a lot of fun. I don't know how to do any of that. It wasn't my thing. My daughter we really haven't outsourced a whole lot of things for her, just because her interests have been different. And you know, usually if we're doing something I'm going with her to do it. So it all revolves around animals of some sort at some point in time.
Speaker 1:So how long do you think they spend on actual, like curriculum type stuff, like in their day to day?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, anywhere from. You know, when they were little to like 30 minutes to two hours, but I don't know we didn't do a whole lot of inbox curriculum. We did a lot of reading, a lot of projects. You know, high school is a little bit different depending on what activity they're in, what they're studying, whether it was, you know, speech and debate took a lot of time. So, you know, six, eight hours a day, but he was really interested in it, so that didn't matter to him.
Speaker 1:Now my daughter, she'd rather poke her eyes out than to do that, so you know an, so you know, an hour a day for her um to learn what she wants to learn. So, yeah, yeah, I think parents look at it as like well, I can do it for elementary school, but I could never do it for, like, high school you can totally do it for high school.
Speaker 2:Because now I'll say a caveat on that if you plan to do a box curriculum and you're doing chemistry, you're doing biology, you're doing physics, you're doing, you know, advanced math and calculus and all those kinds of things, maybe that would be extra hard, but there are resources out there for you to do that. We didn't do it that way. We're very out of the box people. So you know, my daughter learns science by. Actually we go to a certification course for a weekend and she learned all about equine science and then we did an anatomy course together. You know, that's college level. So it just kind of depends on what you want to do so.
Speaker 1:it doesn't have to look like, like you just mentioned the calculus, the chemistry, the history, geography, the social studies.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to teach somebody else's drum, no.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they still do just fine. They still can graduate. How?
Speaker 2:do you handle?
Speaker 1:the graduating. How does that work in?
Speaker 2:uh, in Iowa, and just with high schoolers yeah, so we belong to homeschool legal defense association and so, as long as you follow their parameters, you know you order your diploma and stuff from them as a homeschooler. If you want to go to college, you still have to take all the same tests. So if you didn't teach your kids very well to enable them to pass, you know, the SAT and the ACT test, you know it's gonna be hard for them to get in college. But if you've covered things that will be on those, those tests, then it wouldn't be an issue. But that's never was never our goal.
Speaker 1:I mean my son did take they're like kind of wasters of time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm like why would? My daughter's a show jumper and she wants to train horses for the rest of her life? Why would I have her do chemistry? That doesn't make any sense. And she's learning physics through show jumping and the trajectory and all those kind of things. You know like there's a whole big science to all of that, and so she's got way more common sense than most adults. I know I'm not worried about her.
Speaker 1:And yeah, I'm a member of HSLDA as well. So for anyone that doesn't know, the Homeschool Legal Defense Association and you can go to hsldaorg and they tell you all of the laws in your state and everything you have to do to keep within the guidelines. And I didn't know that they issue diplomas as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's so cool. They'll issue a diploma and then you sign it. You put your homeschool name on there. You, as the parents, sign the diploma. It's nobody else, because you're the ones who have guided the education of your kids. And then we had a party for my son. He wanted a party. I don't know if my daughter's going to want to party or not, so we'll see what happens.
Speaker 1:So how are you handling this part and I kind of want to go into with your podcast too? You're at the end of your homeschooling journey and I have to imagine that's heavy right, like this has been this life with your kids. Now they might not both up and leave the nest right away, but it's a way, it's a lifestyle you know, and so many people think of it in the beginning as like, oh, I got to get through.
Speaker 1:And then I think you quickly realize no, this is a way of life. This is us living together and making memories and bonds. And how are you doing and what is the next step? You have a podcast, so tell us all about this journey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm a nutritional therapist. I've been working out of my home for quite a few years for like 12 years now as a nutritional therapist, so seeing people online and in person, so I've been doing that for quite a while. So I will continue to do that, probably expand that. But we all, all of us do so many things together, like my, my son and my daughter in law. They just bought an acreage, so we'll have projects to help them there. My daughter's going to take the next steps in her life and I'll be a part of that journey as well. So if she moves away from here, I'll be making plans to visit often. I'm having a new grandbaby born within probably 10 days to two weeks. Congratulations, thank you.
Speaker 2:So I feel like it's just a continuation of everything that we've started. I don't feel like it's an end to anything. I feel like it's just okay. So you know that piece is quote unquote done. But the way we've structured, how we live in homeschool in the first place, it doesn't feel like it's done. We're still all learning together. We're still, all you know, trying to do new things and we're all supportive of everything that everybody does Like. I just feel like it's a continuation of what we've, we've, we've been doing. It's just going to look a little bit different, and I'll ask me when my daughter moves out eventually, I don't know, because we like, we like do everything together, but it's all good.
Speaker 1:It's all good, yeah, and so what made you even start the podcast, and how did that come about?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like listening to podcasts and I thought, gosh, I just want to interview people. It just seems like fun to me. So it just was something fun I could do. So that's kind of why I started it and I just wanted to interview people, mainly about health, but it's kind of broadened a bit. So, you know, you were just on my podcast and so I just want people to be able to think bigger and broader about life in general and that you know we can do way more than we think we can and there's lots more opportunities out there than we give, you know, life credit for.
Speaker 1:I guess, yeah, and I think that's by design too, and, and you know, part of the indoctrination process of the school system, totally, yeah, oh, that's so awesome. And what? What even gave you the idea to, like it's called, take back. Take back your brain.
Speaker 2:I know. Well, I started, like I said, I'm a nutritional therapist and I work with the brain, so I do amino acid therapy to help people overcome anxiety, depression, ocd, you know, other mental health issues, and so the brain is always my focus. And so when I initially I created a like a 90 day program and I initially called it the take back my brain program, and then I'm like I should start a podcast called take back my brain, and so that's what I did.
Speaker 1:That's so interesting. So um side note that my father had severe, severe OCD. It probably started in his maybe late twenties and when he had me at 42, I mean he would. We couldn't wear black in the house because it like represented death. We couldn't have money in the house. You couldn't say like the words cancer or any disease, aids, anything. So if it was on a commercial we have to shut off the commercials because that you know some commercials might say this could cause cancer.
Speaker 1:If it did say it, he'd have to throw out all the food in the house we had a certain car for was the food car. So if my mother was coming home from work she couldn't just pick up like dinner on the way home. She had to come home, get the food car and then go to the place to get dinner and bring it home.
Speaker 1:And then you'd have like weird places that only the food could come through, like at one point it could only come through the window, so she'd have to like knock on the window. Yeah, and I always wanted to get into. I mean I've started writing a memoir about it, like kind of the craziness that was, but in a light form. But I've always wondered, like what makes the brain do these things? It was probably from a childhood trauma, I think.
Speaker 1:His father was abusive to the mother and his mom was from Poland and didn't have a lot when she came over, so I don't know how she ended up with this guy, but they had three very odd children. All had issues. And then I've seen, just you know, like a sister of mine has a half sister has issues too, and yeah, I'm like, what makes the brain do that? Is there an easy answer, or it's always different? A easy answer or it's always different in everybody.
Speaker 2:I think it's always different in everybody, but usually there's always one a deficiency going on, a nutrient deficiency. Usually there's some kind of trauma to the brain, you know, emotionally, and then usually there's a spiritual component to it as well. So, yeah, yeah, it's kind of kind of necessarily to die. You need to dive into all those. But I mainly focus on I mean, we always get into emotions in there, but I, I fix the deficiencies in the brain so that you can, you know, work with your therapist or whatever to deal with the emotional piece and you know, then you and God can get right too.
Speaker 1:So Okay, I would imagine that most people have some sort of nutritional deficiency anyway. Just because, our soil doesn't have any nutrients in it. And yeah, so it's just narrowing it down. What is it? Yeah, it's super interesting. I love all that stuff. I just haven't like delved into it, but I'd love to one day really figure it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you and I can chat.
Speaker 1:We can talk about that. Awesome. Lori, thank you so much for joining me on this episode. I love hearing from the moms that have like they have a completed product here and they're successful, like we're so worried our kids are going to hate us because we didn't give them this opportunity or that. But I came to the realization recently that a world schooler is not going to be able to give their child the life of a homesteading family, right, but both are fantastic. Both are fantastic ways to live. So we just can't give our kids everything, but we enjoy what we have and make the most of it and really embrace life together, and that's really what it's all about.
Speaker 1:So thank you so much for joining me. I'm going to link your business and your podcast in the show's description so people can click on that and check you out. Awesome Thanks, Cheryl. Thank you, Lori. Thank you for tuning into this week's episode of the homeschool. How to? If you've enjoyed what you heard and you'd like to contribute to the show, please consider leaving a small tip using the link in my show's description. Or, if you'd rather, please use the link in the description to share this podcast with a friend or on your favorite homeschool group Facebook page. Any effort to help us keep the podcast going is greatly appreciated. Thank you for tuning in and for your love of the next generation.